This line is beautiful. In American culture, we think of destiny as something we create. We are the perpetrators of destiny. Each person is responsible for making a path for themselves. This is a cause of major anxiety for people. We cannot relax because there is this constant pressure to do something and to be someone. The line "Destiny is our friend" is calming. It reflects a culture that does not view Destiny as being on us. Destiny is natural. A friend.

This line is so cryptic. An angel is a religious figure that people use to decorate their homes and sing carols about. They conjure up images of the holidays and good tidings. They are protective figures that act out the wishes of God. However, the string of fear that weaves through the poem suggests something more sinister. Earlier, he alludes to the myth of the Hesperides. They are greek. Perhaps the three angels are the three Fates, choosing his life string, spinning it, and cutting the string.

Vivian expresses a very American sentiment here. She likes working and getting paid for it. For her, this could mean anything. She is highly educated and has a world of opportunities in front of her, albeit only the woman's world of opportunities. She has the luxury of being able to apply her desire and need to work to virtually any job she would like. However, Vivie seems blind to the concept that others may not have this open door. She does not understand that her mother did not have the opportunity to become an actuary.

This sentiment echoes something said earlier by Mr. Crofts: "If you're going to pick and choose your acquaintances on moral principles, you'd better clear out of this country unless you want to cut yourself out of all decent society". Their statements raise a question: who gets to be bad? Mr. Crofts could have easily not partaken in the profession. He had more than enough money to support himself. Mrs. Warren, however, insists she had less of a choice due to her poverty. The way that she sees it, running this business was her only way out. Women at the time had less agency and less options for supporting themselves and a child without a husband. If there are people who are going to do the "wrong" thing regardless--and this story seems it agree that there are--then what responsibility does someone like Mrs. Warren have to do the "right" thing?

This abrupt turn of the poem, which one can assume spans several years as the women become wives and have children, feels off-putting when viewed through the lens of the rest of the text. Suddenly, everything that happened to Laura feels like a dream. She is able to tell the story to her children as if it is a silly tale and not something that happened to her. It makes me consider whether the entire poem is meant to be the watered-down way that Laura tells a story to her children. She has substituted sexual acts for the eating of fruit, and dangerous men for goblins. Perhaps Laura is still seeking to pass along some information to her children without confessing to her past activities--potentially, promiscuous behavior and even drug use. She wants to guide her children, and though her words seem mostly cautionary, she also sends the message that deviating from the typical path is not the worst thing in the world. These hardships give a chance for important relationships, such as that of her and her sister, to blossom and grow.

This passage begins Heathcliff's most cruel and manipulative behavior yet. Nelly has not really seen how Heathcliff has been treating his son, but it quickly becomes apparent that Heathcliff cares nothing for his child, casually discussing his impending death as Linton cries. Heathcliff later essentially kidnaps Nelly and Catherine. Although most of his actions up until this point were cruel, he crosses the line into criminal. His forcing the two to get married completes his transformation into the "monster" that Nelly constantly says he is. He ironically says they he will "respect Catherine filial scruples", even though soon he will not even respect her physical freedom. Although Heathcliff has always been unpredictable, violent, and angry, this Heathcliff seems worse. He is more calculating. He intends to inflict harm on two very innocent victims--a girl with a dying father and a dying boy. The fact that this boy is his son seems to make no difference.

Isabella says she is "gratified" by her husband's sadness. If we recall the early chapters of the book, Isabella was girlish and shy. She would blush and run away at the mention of Heathcliff's name. When the chance came for her to get her knight in shining armor, she took it, not realizing that she had created a Heathcliff in her head that was much different from the reality. Silly mistakes made in youth, at a time of critical development, can echo throughout one's life. In Isabella's case, this cost her her empathy. This hardened Isabella is hardly recognizable from the girl at the beginning of the book. In these passages, we see her showing signs of having been poisoned by the pattern of cruelty displayed by the Earnshaws and Heathcliff. Interestingly, it seems to be her personal strength that caused her to take on this defense mechanism, as Edgar, a much softer character, never did exhibit such behavior despite his time spent with Catherine. This raises a question: who is the happier sibling? Isabella, battle-hardened and bitter, or Edgar, abused but with his humanity fully intact?

This paragraph contains multiple comments on class, age, and ethnicity. This small child that has been discovered is referred to as "it" repeatedly, even though the child is standing right there and they know it is a boy. They have not asked for his name. Rather, Mr. Earnshaw brought the child home for economical reasons, similar to the decision to throw out a car once its repairs cost more than the vehicle is worth. Mrs Earnshaw is displeased with his presence, but begrudgingly allows "it" to sleep with the children--without acknowledging that it is a child.This strange, dark-haired gypsy child is unfathomable as a human. Despite their qualms with it, and their general treatment of it as an animal, the Earnshaws do not display particularly humanitarian behavior toward the child. Catherine hisses and spits, and Mrs. Earnshaw yells about not wanting the child to stay. They seem utterly unaware of the discord in their own home, and the atrocity of their behavior. If their family entered the home of a more civilized family, they may be the ones looked at as a pariah.

Anthropologists generally agree that humans originated in Africa. Therefore, when the speaker mentions "children" here, they may mean the children of Africa--everyone else, including their oppressors. This is a jab to the slave-traders, as they exploit blackness as a justification for slavery, but humanity itself sprung from the continent. Much of human evolution occurred there. Now the white powers were committing crimes against the people and the area from which they came.

The speaker calls the Pilgrims "spirits" here. The term is often used to either describe a person's inner being or personality, or alternatively as a stand-in for the word "ghost". The narrator may be using this word to imply that the very core of their being--their spirit--is rotten. It is deeply ingrained in them. It could also be interpreted that they are frightening, seemingly insurmountable, and unbelievable, like an apparition.

This correspondence stands out because it is one of the few moments that the story isn't hyper-focused on Mansfield Park. The idea that there is a world outside of Mansfield Park was almost unheard of up to this point. The characters have been so concerned with their own affairs. Austen may be providing these moments in the passages to remind the reader of the context of the story is not only Mansfield, but an entire country. People get wrapped up in their petty issues and lose sight of the world, which may contribute to the selfish behavior we see from many of the characters.

The jewelry being described as "ornaments" is a particularly telling word. Ornaments are meant to look pretty. They are meant to sparkle in the light. However, these frivolous objects matter greatly to attendees of such an event. The extent to which people are stressing about these ornaments seems rather silly, because the women themselves will serve as ornaments on the arms of young men. Fanny's concerns over a ribbon versus a chain seem like such a minute detail, yet in this materialistic world it is something that people fall asleep worried about. Perhaps Austen means to point out how trivial such details are.

Edmund's comments here are highly hypocritical. He, too, is a young man. Mrs. Crawford would still be performing all of the racier parts of the play, regardless of who is across from her. His extreme concern for who it is that will play the part is likely a concern for appearances rather than Mrs. Crawford. A stranger may be a member of a lower class, and he believes they would need to be "domesticated" like an animal to be brought in to play the part. What Edmund apparently has not considered is that the "unpleasantness that must arrive from a young man" could just as easily apply to him, making his argument rather moot.

Once married, the three sisters no longer were referred to by their first names. This suggests that women of the time became property to their husbands and lost their autonomy upon marriage. The only one that has been called their first name is Fanny, earlier in the passage, the one sister that did not marry into status. Calling Frances "Fanny" implies that her married name is not quite as worthy as that of the other two sisters. It highlights the importance of class in the society; even your name is a declaration of status.

The poem begins to feel more like an obituary the further that you read. Though the speaker is describing some of their favorite scenes of Autumn, the images begin to turn dark. The phrase "the soft-dying day" hints at the arrival of Winter, a season that means death or hiding for many plants and animals. The speaker is watching Autumn come to a slow end along with this single day, and finds signs of the changing seasons everywhere. Earlier in the poem, the speaker mentioned that the bees "think warms days will never cease" (10), yet the arrival of clouds along with this dying day suggests otherwise. Autumn must bow to Winter.

The simile "like a roe" is interesting here because Wordsworth previously spoke of how nature brings out the best in humans. It is as if he is suggesting that spending time being a little less "human"--time away from the chaos of the city and the stresses of modern life--will in turn make you more inclined to perform a small act of kindness, as the speaker mention in line 35. Despite being intelligent, humans have built many walls and inhibitions for ourselves. Perhaps Wordsworth is suggesting that leaving that behind, if only temporary, is good for the soul.

Here a speaker asks if those that are gazing at the tranquil nature scene must leave that scene, presumably to go somewhere that is not "'so fair'". The word "fair" may have multiple meanings; fair may refer to the beauty of the mountains, or rather the concept of equality. For the latter interpretation, it seems as though the speaker is able to bask in the advantage of fair treatment. The speaker is likely a wealthier individual who has come to expect the benefit that their status brings. To turn away from that--toward the convict--is to leave a fair world behind. Wordsworth may be suggesting that there is no fairness in the convict's situation.